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Replay Value

As a kid I remember waking up excited to take another chance on playing through a side scroller that I had played through many times. Stomping the same Goombas, beating up the same Double Dragon baddies. I was content doing it all over again. At a young age, I wasn’t reading the captions or dialog. I was just hitting the A button as quick as I could.

There was a reward in getting further than I did the previous time. Scores to me still were not as relevant. Did I even fully understand Excitebike? Of course I did, It was to customer create courses that you caused someone to fall down every 2 seconds right, RIGHT?

Now I sit on my couch, having just completed the most recent quest in Fallout 76 and asking myself, what is there really left to do? I hit the Playstation button on the PS4 controller. I look at the handful of achievements left. None of them stand out. Not that they would be particularly hard, however none of them grab me and say hey just do this really quick.

I re-enter the game and view the PipBoy 2000’s Data tab. You can see all of my accomplishments greyed out as a form of no longer being active. Scrolling through the different quest tabs there are only the daily activities remain, none of them are new and have been completed many times. Mac, my character is only level 52 and yet I feel as though there is nothing of substance at this time.

Previously I had felt this way but then Bethesda sneaks in some content and curiosity leads me back to the wastelands of West Virginia. So far, the content did not exceed 6 hours total of content between the last two weekend of me playing it, yet it was free content added to the game. Does the offset it somehow, I don’t know.

Fallout is an example, however many others have felt the same in recent years. Do not take my viewpoint as a negative of the game, but more of an observation of changes within my own gameplay and attitude. The stories themselves and the initial gameplay has been stellar, but the longevity of the games beyond the main storyline is what I find myself struggling with.

I do not regret playing it, nor picking it up for a couple hours to complete additional pieces, but once I have been rewarded for the quest and there are no stories branching off again. I am ready to move on.